


Teenagers

by DragonThistle



Series: Days You Think You'll Forget (but I kept a scrapbook full of polaroids) [2]
Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, High School, References to Alcohol, References to Drugs, Teenagers, just boys bein dudes, just smoking, or whatever the british equivalent is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:48:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26893954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonThistle/pseuds/DragonThistle
Summary: It's nice to be alive.[originally posted on tumblr for Eddsworld Week 2018]
Relationships: okay i guess there's some implied polyworld, the only ship here is friendship
Series: Days You Think You'll Forget (but I kept a scrapbook full of polaroids) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1959427
Kudos: 23





	Teenagers

Edd meets Tom in elementary school.

  
After that, they are inseparable.

* * *

  
A boy with no eyes chases the bullies off with a stick and the furious expression on his face is almost terrifying.

  
But when he turns to look down at Tord, the fury is replaced by a stubborn frown. He thrusts his hand out, an offer, his palm scratched with dirt from his impromptu weapon.

  
“I’m Tom. ‘N if those jerks ever pick on you again, come find me or my friend Edd. We’ll show 'em who’s boss.”

* * *

  
When they are very small, Tom’s father dies.

  
It’s an accident, but it still hurts terribly. Even if Tom doesn’t really comprehend why, it still hurts. He cries so hard that he gets the hiccups and hides in his room from shame.

  
He and Matt drift apart until high school.

* * *

  
Tord has the gall to kiss Edd at the Senior Prom.

  
Edd punches him in the mouth. And then punches Tom in the face for good measure when he starts making noise about it.

* * *

  
There are three days in high school where Tom is absent. When he comes back, he is instantly badgered by his three friends,

  
"Where did you go? What happened to you? Are you okay?”

  
Tom shoves them off dismissively. But when he steps back, he’s wearing a smug grin that shows off his black-white-black-white braces.

  
“I got suspended for biting a kid so hard he bled.”

* * *

  
They play card games sometimes during lunches. 

  
Sometimes it’s 2v2, sometimes it’s 1v1, and when they are feeling particularly adventurous they have 1v1v1v1. Those usual dissolve into petty squabbles and yelling as they all eventually lose track of who has done what and where and when, too many turns and too many confusing actions.

  
But they still laugh when Tom gets a paper cut from card and “swears vengeance on all Pikachu for all eternity".

* * *

  
One of the questions is “What do you want to do when you get older?”

  
Most of the answers are generic, the typical and expected answers like “become a fireman” or “make video games”. Edd says he wants to make cartoons. Tom says he wants to make music. Matt wants to be a fashion model, which is a bit weird but still gets him full marks.

  
Tord says he’s going to take over the world.

* * *

  
Tom has nightmares that he never talks about.

* * *

  
Matt tries dating while they’re in high school. 

  
He’s too self-centered for the relationships to last long and anyone who knew him could have told him “I told you so”. But he always bounces back laughing and runs to join his friends again.

* * *

  
They catch Tord smoking behind the bleachers on the day of the first snow fall. He tries to hide it from them, dropping it quickly into the snow and grinding it out with his heel.

  
Edd says he doesn’t care but Matt lectures about health and safety. Tom doesn’t say anything.

  
Two weeks later they catch Tom with a bottle of alcohol filched from his mother’s liquor cabinet.

* * *

  
Tom likes to catch bugs and frogs. He shows Matt the best way to get butterflies to land on him without hurting them.

  
After it rains, they dig up worms from the soft dirt and put them in a jar so that Matt’s dad can take them fishing. 

* * *

  
Edd draws on his homework and in the dirt of the school yard.

  
Sometimes he draws on his friends’ homework too.

  
When Tom breaks his arm falling off the roof, Edd draws on his cast too.

* * *

  
As teenagers during the summer, they wander the streets and alleys or get tangled in the undergrowth of forgotten paths in the woods. They hang around the corner shops, eating snacks and tipping cheers with cans of soda and laughing at jokes lost in the buzzing heat.

  
Tord pawns cigarettes off of unsuspecting strangers. He tries a cigar once, finds he likes them better, even though the other three say they stink.

  
At night they sneak to the pond with cheap alcohol and strip to dive into the freezing waters. They swim until their fingers are numb and their lips are blue and the drink isn’t enough to keep them warm anymore. Then they run, drenched and peppered in grass and leaves, abandoning empty bottles for someone else to find as they race each other back home. They tag under the streetlights, flickering in and out of the dark, heedless of the hour.

  
Because the summer night is thick and warm and they are teenagers, forever youthful and wild.

  
They are still young. They still have time to do stupid shit.

  
They don’t know what the future will bring to them, and right now they’re too free to care.


End file.
